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Welcome to my Polish blog! My Polish great grandpa was orphaned during the Chicago flu epidemic of 1918 & spent his life looking for all of his siblings. Some family stayed in Chicago & some returned to Poland. Some family was Catholic, & some are believed to be Jewish. I post the things I learn in efforts it may help someone else in their research. I also hope this blog helps me connect with others that know about the people I'm learning about. Digital images of records or links are put inside most postings so you can view records full screen. I encourage comments. Feel free to sign the guestbook, stating who you're looking for. Maybe we can all help each other out this way, because there are many challenges with Polish research. I hope you enjoy learning with me. And I hope to be taught more about my Polish heritage.I have added a few languages to this blog through Google translate. I hope that it may be accurate enough with the communication of ideas. Thanks! -Julie

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04 January 2012

Updated 7 Jan 2012- Here is a link to the United States Holocaust museum website, listing resources. There are links about education, research, history, available in several languages: http://www.ushmm.org/education/

Posting 4 Jan 2012:
I have been reading and hearing about whole Jewish communities disappearing from Poland, during WWII. Not just damaged, because a pile of rubble would still show something was there. I mean that not a trace was left. No bricks or stones of the synagogue left. Tombstones taken away. The Nazi leaders wanted to erase the history, as if no Jews had ever been there. In some ways, the history has been erased because so many people do not know there was ever a thriving Jewish community in these places. Zabłocie had a large synagogue and Jewish community. That is all gone now. But records still exist, and that will prevent history from being totally erased. So what do you do, or where do you look, if you think you might have Jewish relatives, but the Nazi's tried to erase the history? Where are the records now? Where have the records moved to? I started asking people questions.

I'm told the best source online, is the Jewish Genealogy site: http://www.jewishgen.org/
I found a helpful, interesting video. I just bought it on Amazon and watched it this weekend. If you are looking for Jewish relatives in Poland, (Pre-WWII) I highly recommend this video. There are subtitles in: Hebrew, Russian, Finnish, Polish, Arabic and English. It won awards. This story takes place in Ciechocinek, Poland, where all Jewish traces were erased. The movie documentary time is just over a half hour long. (I am not all connected to this movie. I just bought it and think it's great.) This does show where records were moved to. I learned some new things and felt some questions were answered with this DVD.

There were two sources of information especially intriguing to me in the video. They went to an old school, and stated the old school records had as much information as a birth record. There were also school pictures, like an American year book, with group pictures. The family also knew the name of the shop their ancestor owned. In an office, someone checked books, written in Yiddish, by the resistance groups, of all that happened to the shop, or any knowledge of the people. School books and books written by the Jews about their people are still here, and not destroyed. There are amazing resources with better technology and communication today, with more opportunities yet in the future. This is where I got the DVD: "Traces" movie link on Amazon

I have also been told several times, when I ask people questions, that I need to visit the holocaust museum in Washington DC. I've been told they also help with education and research in areas such as this. I hope to visit there soon. When I visit the museum, I'll post any resources they give me.

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See posting 18 Jul 2010 for links, explanations and JPEG image examples explaining how I have found naturalization records.

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Chicago Census Maps & Chicago street grid (address) changes

If you have an address, you can look up your family on the Census through Census maps. Which for immigrant names, is often an easier way to find families. See more on the posting 1 Oct 2009, or the tag "census maps".
Also, there were major changes to Chicago addresses in 1909 & 1911. See the posting for 1 Jan 2010.